Bihar Maoist attack toll rises to six

The Maoist rebel group Peoples Guerilla Liberation Army (PGLA) has owned up Wednesday night’s well-coordinated attack at a police camp which left six persons dead at Goh, 80 kms south of Patna, in Bihar’s Aurangabad district.

The Maoist rebel group Peoples Guerilla Liberation Army (PGLA) has owned up Wednesday night’s well-coordinated attack at a police camp which left six persons dead at Goh, 80 kms south of Patna, in Bihar’s Aurangabad district. The slain included one bus driver, whose death was confirmed by police on Thursday.

The PGLA, the armed wing of the CPI-Maoists, claimed to have carried out the attack, codenamed ‘Operation Green Hunt Breakthrough’, in retaliation to Bihar Police’s ‘Operation Silent Green Hunt’ against the Maoists. The rebels also looted 30 weapons when they overran the base camp of the Special Auxiliary Police (SAP) after attacking a construction site off the Goh-Rafiganj road.

Three of the dead are jawans of the SAP while two others were private security personnel engaged by the construction agency.

The spokesperson of the rebel group, known only as Gopal, said in a statement that they have looted 3 AK47s, 11 SLRs and 16 Insas rifles besides 2,500 cartridges.

He said, “It was not the PGLA’s intention to kill the private security guards”.

Eyewitnesses told HT that the Maoists squads first cleared the shops, bus stands and homes of people, before they started the firing at the SAP base camp. The base camp has been attacked six times in the past.

The killed SAP jawans killed have been identified as Amrik Singh (Amritsar), Subhash Singh (UP) and Paras Nath Mishra (Ballia) while the two private security guards were identified as Shankar Baitha and Ranganath Singh. The lone civilian, a bus driver, was killed in a landmine blast.

Additional director general of police (headquarters) Ravinder Kumar confirmed looting of the armoury.

“Security forces have launched an operation to encircle the retreating Maoist squads,” he said.

Senior officers including ADG (law and order) S K Bharadwaj and IG rank officers of state police and CRPF were camping at the spot to supervise the combing operation against Maoists, who are suspected to have escaped in the night to their hideouts in Goh and neighboring Jharkhand areas. The raiding Maoist team was said to have been made up of 250 to 300 rebels.